December 20, 2010
To: Jim Turk, Executive Director
Canadian Association of University Teachers
and
Henry Mandelbaum, Executive Director
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
We are writing with regard to Jenny Peto, a student at OISE whose masters’ thesis was recently attacked in the Ontario Legislature, after articles about it appeared in both the National Post and the Toronto Star.
We do not feel that it is appropriate for our committee to comment on the work of Ms. Peto. That was the job of her thesis committee, and they saw fit to grant her a Masters’ degree for it. For members of the Ontario Legislature to subsequently speak publicly against her thesis—made even more offensive by the fact that the critics proudly announced that they hadn’t read it—is both outrageous and a dangerous assault on academic freedom.